Congress for Parenteral Nutrition and Metabolism, ESPEN 2008

ESPEN -European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism welcome us in Florence, Italy for the 30 Congress, from 13-16 of September, 2008.

The motto of ESPEN 2008 is: “Nutrition Renaissance from care to cure”.

For the program or any other detail, please visit the address:

http://www.espen.org/npages/florence/

PPRI report on pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies

PPRI, the acronym for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information, is a networking and information-sharing initiative on burning issues of pharmaceutical policies from a public health perspective. It involves a network of more than 50 institutions (mainly competent authorities and third party payers) from the whole European Union, plus Albania, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.

In June 2008, the PPRI Report was published. On 140 pages, it provides an in-depth overview on pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement and an analysis of strategies for rational use and cost-containment in the EU Member States of the enlarged European Union. This report is accompanied by detailed 21 country reports (so-called PPRI Pharma Profiles) on the pharmaceutical systems.

Have a look at the table of content!

Download here the PPRI Report (without Annexes).

Please note that the PPRI Report contains two Annexes: Annex I covering the PPRI Pharma Profiles, and Annex II provides PPRI Tools and Reports.

The PPRI Pharma Profiles of Annex I can be downloaded under the next section country information

Source

http://ppri.oebig.at/

Deregulation of the Swedish Pharmacy system

Things are going to change in the Sweden Pharmacy sector, both in Hospital and Community. An article, written by Dr Srinivas Uppugunduri, in the new issue of the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy-Practice shows us the way. Here are some highlights:

"Sweden, in stark contrast to most European countries, has had a state-owned monopoly for retailing and distribution of drugs. The Swedish government, in a wave of nationalisations, created Apoteket AB (The National Board of Swedish Pharmacies) in the early 1970s. Apoteket AB, a public sector company owned by the Swedish state was awarded the exclusive privilege of operating, both, community and hospital pharmacies.

... deregulation should take place in three stages.

• The first step will be the deregulation of the hospital pharmacies which will be effective from 1 September 2008
• The second step will be to allow private enterprises to open community pharmacies
• The last set of proposals aims at making many OTC drugs available, without professional supervision, at many retailing stations such as gas stations and grocery shops

...
Provided the necessary legislation is in place, we might see the advent of privately run hospital pharmacies for the very first time in Swedish history."


Sources

Read the whole article in: http://www.eahponline.org/upload/ejhp/NationalNews13(2).pdf

Inquiry on the re-regulation of the pharmacy market: http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/10667/a/105674

The Government's decisions concerning the pharmacy market: http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/10667/a/105672

Commission v Spain on access to hospital pharmacy practice

In 2007, the Commission decided to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice over its failure to implement Directive 89/48/EEC on a general system for the recognition of professional qualifications in the case of the profession of hospital pharmacist (ECJ case C 39/07).

Qualified hospital pharmacists from other EU Member States have difficulties in obtaining the right to practise in Spain and, consequently, are denied the rights of freedom of movement and freedom of establishment granted by the Treaty, the ECJ rules.

The Court (Second Chamber) hereby:

1. Declares that, by failing to adopt all the measures necessary to transpose Council Directive 89/48/EEC of 21 December 1988 on a general system for the recognition of higher-education diplomas awarded on completion of professional education and training of at least three years’ duration, as far as the profession of hospital pharmacist is concerned, the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive;

2. Orders the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.


Sources

http://www.eahp.eu/asp/monitor_news_detail.asp?ID=156&m=11
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62007J0039:EN:HTML

Global Conference on the Future of Hospital Pharmacy, FIP, Basel 2008

You are invited to participate in a historic event that will guide the future development of hospital pharmacy practice around the world. The FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section (HPS) is hosting a Global Conference on the Future of Hospital Pharmacy immediately before the start of the 68th International Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).

The conference is open to any hospital pharmacy leader, hospital pharmacist or other individual interested in hospital pharmacy practice. This event will give the participants the opportunity to share professional experiences in hospital pharmacy with colleagues from all over the world.

The complete findings of a Global Survey on Hospital Pharmacy Practice, a FIP Board of Pharmaceutical Practice Special Project carried out in 2007-2008, will be presented.

The participants will identify opportunities for global advancement of hospital pharmacy practice relevant to the needs of each participating country. Working group sessions will focus on various dimensions of the medication use process in hospital. Consensus statements will be developed to offer guidance on the development of tools to advance hospital pharmacy practice.

The conference will truly be a unique opportunity to influence, in a very direct way, the development of hospital pharmacy in all countries of the world, consistent with the critical needs that patients and healthcare professionals have for pharmacists’ expertise.

Conference Dates: Saturday 30th of August 2008 - Sunday 31st of August 2008

For more information and schedule of the conference:

http://www.fip.org/CONGRESS/basel08/

http://www.fip.org/CONGRESS/basel08/index.php?page=basel_prog_programmebyday

http://www.fip.org/CONGRESS/basel08/index.php?page=basel_prog_programmebyday&basel_prog_programmebyday=program&program_id=188

9th International HL7 Interoperability Conference IHIC2008

9th International HL7 Interoperability Conference
IHIC2008, 8-11 October, 2008, Chersonissos, Crete, Greece.

Deadline for submission of extended abstracts is April 30, 2008. Visit the website www.hl7.org.gr/ihic2008

Thematic Priorities

HL7 implementation experience from regional, transregional, or national implementation:
§ HL7 v2.x and 3.0 messages
§ Clinical Document Architecture (CDA)
§ ePrescription and eClaims
§ Collaborative use of standards, HL7 in IHE profiles
§ Terminologies, ontologies and Coding Systems
· Business Models for reimbursement & large scale deployment:
§ Global initiatives beyond HIPPA and the European Health Insurance Card (eHIC)
§ Electronic Healthcare Record: from strategy to implementation.
§ Knowledge deployment processes for education, certification
§ Legal and regulatory issues.
· HL7 standards for Security, Confidentiality and Trust.
· Beyond HL7 messages and documents. - Challenges ahead
· HL7 in consumer health:
§ HL7 v3 for Personal health records and health plans
§ environmental health and personalized health early warning (e.g. pollution, allergies)
§ HL7 CDA for Personal health devices, smart appliances, health cards
· HL7 in population health and decision support
§ epidemiology, disease surveillance and control
§ geographical information systems for population health
§ disaster medicine, emergency management and public health
§ clinical genomics and family history

IHE Workshop Program

Thursday October 9, 2008, 8:30-15:00

Integrating the Health Enterpise (IHE) Orientation Workshop

(preliminary program)

Charles Parisot, Eric Poiseau

8:30-10:30 The IHE Standards Adoption Process: achieving practical interoperability

From Standards to IHE Profiles, closing the compatibility gaps

- regional and national health information exchange projects: connecting care

- integrated hospital (radiology, laboratory, cardiology, pathology, etc.)

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Users and Vendors working together: how can I contribute & influence IHE

- role of national IHE, IHE-Europe, IHE International and Domain Committees

From IHE Profiles to conformance testing, closing the implementation gap

- Helping the implementers, testing tools, connectathons

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch Break

13:30-15:00 How to use IHE resources: hands on experience

- technical Frameworks: navigating, Q&A

- test tools: finding, using, configuring

- participating in the testing process

Source

http://www.hl7.org.gr/ihic2008/default.htm